Borgal looked bad. In the two weeks since I had seen him, he had lost significant weight. The shirt-pant set hung loose in some places, pinched baggy skin in others, and stretched tight over the swollen bulge of his stomach. His shoulders slumped crooked, one side pressed up toward his ear while the other drooped unnaturally low. Worst of all, the gray splotches covering his face now spiraled so deep that they pushed his features askew, tilting his nose to the side and forcing his eyes almost shut.

Somehow, his trembling lips managed a smile when he saw me and Fraschkit. "Remgar, Fraschkit..." Borgal turned to each of us as he choked out our names. "I'm so, so relieved to see you're both alright."

On the walk here, hot rage had pumped through my veins, but now cold nausea doused that fire. Fraschkit had asked me to join because she believed I was 'better at controlling my emotions,' but I feared she was wrong. I fought the urge to turn back toward Isalio, who waited at the entrance of the chamber in two blocker cuffs. I didn't really fear the pathetic traitor before me, but I definitely feared my own emotions, and I would have felt better with Isalio at my side.

Fraschkit hissed through her teeth. "I'm equally relieved to see you—relieved that I get the chance to kill you myself."

Borgal fell to his knees and folded forward, pressing his forehead to the ground near her feet. "Please, please, forgive me." He reached toward Fraschkit's boot. "Please, give me another chance. You—you don't understand..."

She jerked her foot out of his reach, face twisted in disgust. "Don't touch me. If you want to live, you better give us answers fast. Why are you here? Did the Demons send you?"

"No, no, no. I escaped."

"Yeah, we've heard that before." She twisted her head toward the others present: Kardki and three Mantle residents, Bakvar the Guardian, Jafflu the human, and Eranea the Demon. "Have you checked him for a tracking chip?"

Jafflu tipped his head and hummed affirmation. "Our scavengers always use a metal detector on anyone seeking refuge."

Bakvar frowned at Borgal. "Sounds like what we really need is a lie detector—our scavenger group ate up all this scumbag's stories. He told them he narrowly escaped a harrowing captivity at the palace, only to be betrayed by his own people."

As with most of Borgal's lies, there were pieces of truth in that. I hoped that the 'betrayal by his own people' part meant that our Guardians tasked with warning others had been successful. And I hoped that Borgal knew that the people he had called 'friends' were responsible for the rest of the Guardians turning against him; that we were now no more loyal to him than he had been to us.

"They aren't the only ones he fooled," I said. "He's good at pretending to be someone he's not."

"Remgar," Borgal rasped. "Remgar, please, I'm still your friend."

"If everything had gone according to your plan, all of your so-called friends would be chained up in the barn."

He whimpered, clutching his protruding belly. "I kept you safe, didn't I? I arranged for you and Fraschkit to leave the base before the Demons arrived!"

That made me pause because I had already wondered that same thing. Our dismissal had been too convenient. But even if that part was true, that didn't make him any less a traitor.

"You followed every order the palace gave you for years."

"Anyone who has experienced this much pain is free to judge me."

"The Queen said you broke easily."

"Look at me, Remgar." When I shook my head, he repeated it louder, hoarser. "Look at me! Does this look easy?"

Biting my tongue, I met his eyes. He had risen to kneeling, sitting back on his feet, and he gestured to his mutilated face, his lopsided shoulders, his misshapen body. Bile clawed at my throat, sharp and bitter. I had daydreamed several times about meeting Borgal again, but in those daydreams, an evil smile would twist his lips as he charged toward me, and I would narrowly avoid his deadly blow before stabbing him through the heart. In those daydreams, he wouldn't look like Borgal anymore, and he certainly wouldn't be kneeling before me with tear-filled eyes.

For a moment, I slipped back into my old mindset. This is my fault. He was captured because of me—because I hadn't stopped him from entering the palace, and because I'd been too weak to save him. He should never have faced all of that agony.

I swallowed over the painful lump in my throat. "You got the Demons to allow you to leave by agreeing to help them—fine, that makes sense. But once you reached the base, why didn't you tell us the truth? Why did you follow through on their plan instead of helping us make a new one?"

"You know how strong the Demons are, even without the Morgabeast. I couldn't turn against them so soon. Maybe to beat them, we have to play their game."

"Play what game?"

"I'm sure you understand—you're the master of that game! I thought the High Prince manipulated you, but you sure proved me wrong. Here he is, fully-restrained and obeying your every command."

I blinked, sliding back a step. I was now excruciatingly aware of Isalio standing behind me, but the thought no longer brought me comfort. What would he think of what Borgal had just said? I wanted to tell Borgal how wrong he was right then and there, but I wasn't sure I should let him in on my true feelings, and with Fraschkit, Kardki, and three Mantle residents present, I needed to be careful with my words.

"You know nothing about what I'm doing," I said.

"I know what the palace has to say about it. The way they talk about it, the Prince is letting you push him around like a slave. There are even some who think he's giving you lifeforce now instead of the other way around."

I blew a dismissive tss, but my mind could not dismiss his words as easily. Isalio had been so hesitant to even try exchanging lifeforce both ways, but I had insisted, and he had caved. What did he actually want? What would make him happy? I had never even asked. I'd been too determined to make my plan work.

Fuck, I was as bad as Danif.

When Isalio spoke from behind me, everyone jumped. "Were you at the palace recently, Borgal? Did you see the Duchess?"

His question sent another pang of guilt through me. This was another example of me not thinking about Isalio's needs enough. The Duchess was more a parent to him than either of his actual parents, yet I had never even considered how worried he must be.

Instead of looking at Isalio, Borgal addressed me. "Remgar, this Demon's question is actually what I came here to tell you about. May I answer this?"

I scowled. "You can address him directly. It's not like you haven't before."

Borgal half-turned toward Isalio, clutching his contorted belly as though speaking to a Demon made him sick to his stomach. "Yes, I was at the palace, and yes, I saw the Duchess. In fact, she helped me escape. She asked me to find you."

Isalio shook his head, and his voice came out choked. "Why?"

"Because she has something important she needs to share with you."

"Then why not come herself?"

"Well, apparently the Queen has been keeping a close eye on her after a recent spat."

Despite my determination not to believe him, that caught my attention. Could the sisters have had a spat about the Duchess helping us escape?

"Even if the Duchess couldn't come herself," I said, "Why send you? She oversees human servants who she must trust more."

"She didn't want to endanger any human lives. And anyway, apparently the human she trusted most disappeared at the same time you did."

I frowned. Could he mean Zuzette? "Then get on with it. What message did the Duchess send you to deliver?"

"After realizing that the High Prince was struggling to control the Morgabeast, she searched the oldest books, talked to the lowliest of Demons, and listened to stories passed on through generations. In the end, she finally stumbled upon an answer."

"An answer to what?"

"How to vanquish the Morgabeast once and for all." After a pause, his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "The answer lies in the Forest of Lost Beasts."

A shiver scuttled down my spine like spiders, and I jerked my shoulder blades together to crush the sensation. My father had said something similar: the forest is calling. First Guardian, I hoped we didn't need to go there again.

"What about the Forest?" Fraschkit demanded.

"The beasts come through the Sky Realm when a Demon Snaps—I'm sure you already know that, since you have Demons here." He shot Eranea a glance and swallowed. "But you may not know that beasts first land on the Center Stone in the Forest of Lost Beasts. They travel back to that same Center Stone when their Demons die. Most beasts return to the Sky Realm after that, but the most vicious ones...they aren't ready to return because they never wanted to serve a Demon in the first place. They came for something else."

Bazabeast zipped back toward Eranea's arm and burrowed into her sleeve. Eranea stared at the beast with wide eyes, and her alarm rapidly spread to the rest of the group. Did Bazabeast know something even Eranea didn't know? Though I still hated to trust Borgal, I couldn't ignore the outside sources that seemed to confirm what he was saying: my father's prophecy, the Bazabeast's reaction, and what Duchess had told me about the Forest of Lost Beasts:

"So they stay in the forest," I said, "Waiting for a leader strong enough to help them overtake the world."

Borgal nodded. "The Morgabeast."

"How long do we have?"

Borgal tipped his head toward Isalio. "He'll probably know when the Morgabeast starts recruiting. For all we know, it could even happen in the next few days."

"Then what do we do?"

"According to the Duchess, the High Prince needs to make it to the Center Stone and call the Morgabeast—fast, before it's ready to take over. Only there can he banish the beast."

I blanched. "If he can even make it to the Center Stone without dying, the Morgabeast will kill him."

Eranea gave a slow nod. "That's how he'd send away the Morgabeast. Snapping tears a hole in the border of the Sky Realm, and so does dying. Maybe if he dies when he's at the Center Stone, there's a better chance of—"

"He's not dying." My voice came out harsh; ragged. "There has to be another way. If we lose him, we'd lose—" Everything. "We'd lose," I repeated, more quietly but just as desperately. "Even if he can somehow send away the Morgabeast, we'd lose to the palace."

Borgal spread his hands, palms up. "The Duchess doesn't like this option either, but she thinks it's the only way."

"Maybe the Duchess is wrong—or maybe you're lying to us, and the Duchess never said any of that."

"It makes sense though, doesn't it?" Borgal appealed to the rest of the room. "You all must see that it does make sense."

Did it make sense? The truth was, I didn't want it to make sense. I refused to believe our win could hinge on his death because I could imagine no brighter future without Isalio in it.

"I'll go," said Isalio.

I clenched my jaw. Of course he would say that—working against me again.

Or...working with me? Maybe the forest was the answer, even if Isalio's death was not. I couldn't send Isalio to his death, but maybe there was another way to win. My father had mentioned the forest too, but that wasn't the only thing he said.

"Then I'll go with you," I said.

Isalio crossed his arms and glared at me. "Borgal didn't say anything about you."

"But my father did. He said it came down to me, and he also said we needed to work together. Maybe our power to..." I hesitated, still not wanting to share our newfound abilities with Borgal. "Maybe we can banish the Morgabeast without anyone dying."